


Not For Your Sake

by lukadarkwater



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 13:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3251048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lukadarkwater/pseuds/lukadarkwater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to Cornerstone, Rythian and Lalna are working together for the first time since the Nuke destroyed Blackrock. How is Rythian dealing with working with the man who shattered his life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not For Your Sake

Getting to sleep in the Cornerstone base was always a hassle. First, they actually had to get into the base and, with the various teams scattered about all over the world, this was a massive task in and of itself.

  
After a lot of angry messages, threats, and general confusion on who exactly was still missing, the entire team was finally assembled in the base and then came the item sorting, the machine checks, the “where the heck is my hang glider?!” and then--at last--they began to get into bed.

  
Since the beds were all shoved up against each other, most of them them tended to just crawl up from the foot of the bed but then there were people like Smith, who often stole others beds which caused a lot of ruckus, or people like Strippin who jumped on, scaring the people on either side of him.

  
By the time everyone was settled and in their correct beds, the sun had long since fallen behind the edge of the earth.

  
Rythian, who often fell asleep last, lay awake one night listening to the soft sounds of the others falling asleep around him. Lomadia’s breathing was a steady flow two beds down while Smith tossed and turned on his left. Ross snored, a low deep sound that wasn’t unpleasant, and Benji-- who was known to sleep talk-- muttered a random word every now and again.

  
Rythian had just began to relax against his pillow as these songs mingled with the sound of the wind against the windows when he was suddenly kicked in the back by Nano, who lay beside him. Startled, his eyes snapped open and he turned to see the small girl thrashing around under the covers.

  
He was about to sit up and wake her to see what was the matter, when he saw an arm curve around her middle and pull her away from him.  
Lalna’s voice spoke quietly to the girl and she calmed slightly in his embrace, her breathing still hoarse.

  
All of a sudden, Rythian wasn’t in his bed in the Cornerstone base, he was back in the desert tent. The air had the night chill that came when the sun dipped down below the horizon in the desert and the sounds of the nocturnal creatures echoed inside of the sandstone walls.

  
Zoey was writhing in her sleep, her movements frantic, and she let out a scream as her terrors caught up to her.

  
Rythian reached over and grabbed her shoulders. “Zoey!” He said loudly, trying to pull her out of her dreams. “Zoey, wake up!”

  
Her blue eyes, blurry with the lingering effects of sleep, snapped open and she tried to pull away from him for a moment before she realized what was going on.  
“Rythian?” She asked, trembling under his fingers.

  
“I’m here,” he whispered, pulling her to his chest and rubbing her back softly. “Everything is ok.”

  
“I had a nightmare again.”

  
“I know, but you’re safe, you’re with me and you are safe.”

  
He felt her small nod against his chest and he gently allowed himself to lean back against the bed, his arms wrapped tightly around Zoey.  
He was pulled back from his memory as Nano continued to thrash beside him, despite Lalna’s whispered words.

  
Rythian sat up, Nano’s unrest having restored him back to a fully awake state.

  
“Is she going to be alright?” he asked softly.

  
Lalna’s blue eyes met his from on the other side of Nano, wide with surprise.

  
“Um, yeah, probably.” He murmured, his face betraying his actual thoughts.

  
“Why don’t you wake her?”

  
“I don’t want her to scream,” Lalna’s voice was feather soft in the darkness, “She screams if she is woken up when she is like this.

  
Rythian blinked, his old memories threatening to take him over once more. After the nuke had destroyed Blackrock, Zoey would wake him up with his screams more nights than not.

  
“You might try rubbing her back.”

  
Lalna looked back up at him, “What?”

  
"Zoey she... Had trouble sleeping after... You might try rubbing her back, that always worked for me"

  
For a moment Lalna looked as if he might say something, but in the end he simply cast his eyes down and began moving his hand over Nano’s back in slow, soothing motions.

  
As Rythian had predicted the girl began to quiet, her body falling back into a dreamless sleep.

  
“It’s the flux, isn’t it?” Rythian guessed, his voice still low as to not wake the others.

  
Lalna nodded, “It is; it seems the further it spreads the worse they -the dreams- become…”

  
“Is it the same for you?”

Lalna’s eyes didn’t leave Nano as he replied “No. I have nightmares, but they aren’t like hers. Besides, mine usually end when I wake up and see-”

  
He broke off, and even in the dark Rythian could see the guilt on his face.

  
“I was a fool,” he said, his eyes closing. “How can you even stand to look at me after what I did.”

  
“I couldn’t for a long time,” Rythian admitted, his eyes trailing across the wooden floor to stare out into the night around them, “But this girl has changed you, even more than you know.”

  
“Zoey changed you as well, and I almost took her away from you.”

  
“You did, and I will never forgive you for that.”

  
“Then why are you here? Why did you agree to work with us, with me?”

  
Rythian sighed, “That day, when Sjin gathered us all together to propose this plan to us, do you remember it?”

  
“Of course, he had us all over to his farm.”

  
Rythian nodded, “Yes, and that day I met Nano for the first time and she just… she’s too much like her.”The word was weighted with emotion. “Bubbly, light, so happy to be together with everyone. I wasn’t expecting it. I was expecting… I don’t know. Someone just as twisted as you ar- no, were. You weren’t the same either. You were following her around like a puppy and the look in your eyes…” he shook his head, “I’ll be damned if I didn’t see it every time I looked in the mirror.” he ran a hand through his hair, “I knew that I couldn’t ever bring myself to harm her and because of that, I couldn’t bearto harm you either because I know what it would do to her.”  
“It’s not like that…”

  
Rythian had to stifle his laugh against his hand, “It never is, is it? We all start out with no idea of what is to come and all of a sudden… it just happens. A single look, a brush of skin, and we are as lost as sheep. Even if she doesn’t admit it, she cares more deeply for you than you know, Lalna. And for that reason, and that alone, I cannot ever harm you now.”

  
Nano had fully settled down now, her face was pressed against Lalna’s chest and his arm tightened around her as he said, “What about revenge?”

  
“If I hurt her, which is the one thing that I truly believe could hurt you, it would be as if I was hurting Zoey-- and I could never do that, not as long as I still draw breath.”  
Lalna was so silent for a time that Rythian wondered if he had fallen asleep.

  
Then, so quietly Rythian wasn’t sure if he’d heard it correctly, Lalna breathed “I’m sorry.”

  
“Be sorry,” Rythian said, almost as quietly, “Hold that guilt in your heart and every time you look at her, treasure her all the more. Whatever the flux is doing to her, you have to know it isn’t good.”

  
Lalna’s hand clenched into a fist against Nano’s back.

  
“It just feels like there is a timer ticking down and neither of us knows when it will go-” He broke off and his eyes met Rythian’s.

  
“Now you know how it feels,” Rythian whispered, a wave of exhaustion sweeping over him. He lay back against his bed. “Protect her as fiercely as you can, and let her do the same for you. Whatever happens, she’s going to need you.”

  
“I will” Lalna vowed.

  
“And Lalna? This is all for her sake, do not think that I will ever forgive you.”

  
“I know,” he whispered as Rythian’s eyes drifted shut, “Everything I’ve done for a long time has been for her sake.”

**Author's Note:**

> Born from a conversation that aeverelle on Tumblr and I were having on Skype the other day and our love for Blackrock and Flux Buddies parallels.


End file.
